Review quote

"[Paideia] is intended for the general reader, and it is probably God's gift to educators, because it conveys to the reader, in a clear and attractive form, covering the ground comprehensively, a conception of the central point of view in Hellenic society and culture."--Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker"The most illuminating work I have ever read on Greece."--Edith Hamilton, The New York Times Book Review.

Back cover copy

The project of Greek culture in its heroic period was the creation of the perfect state-a goal that seemed within reach in the Athens of the fifth century B.C. But with the fall of Athens that prospect evaporated, and the result, which Werner Jaeger describes in this second volume of his magisterial three-volume study of Hellenism, was the spiritualizing of Greek culture-'the search for the divine centre.' Jaeger traces the growth of this new power in human culture from its early beginnings in the teachings of Socrates, to its natural climax in Plato's Republic.